Birmingham v Cardiff (preview)

Cardiff City make the short trip to the West Midlands this weekend to play current league leaders Birmingham City in a game televised on Sky Sunday morning at 11.30.

Both sides have led the Championship for a lengthy period this season, but such is the competition, both sides were caught and now are separated by just 5 points.

Cardiff City won the fixture betweeen the two clubs early in the season, by 2-0 in an impressive performance for the Bluebirds, Joe Ledley and Paul Parry getting the goals.

Birmingham are a tough side and definately have the quality to return to the Premiership this season. Manager Steve Bruce has been given money to spend and the big name captures of Gary McSheffrey, Rowan Vine and Cameron Jerome have added to an already strong frontline including DJ Campbell and the impressive Nicholas Bendtner on loan from Arsenal.

One area of weakness is at centre-back after the sale of captain Matthew Upson, while Jaidi will be suspended for the visit of Cardiff.

The Blues have been inconsistent of late with 3 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in their previous 7 games. The appear to prefer playing the big sides at the top of the leage but struggle against teams like Southend (L), Hull (L) and Leeds United whom they luckily beat in midweek.

Cardiff City arrive in good form, Michael Chopra in a brilliant goalscoring run with 9 in 6 games. Peter Whittingham has been outstanding of late also and may come in for some stick from the Birmingham fans on account of his Aston Villa connections. Cardiff have lost just once in 7, winning 5 of those and will be confident of taking something from the game.

Both sides will be under pressure to collect points after the Saturday games, Cardiff will probably be outside of the play-off positions and Birmingham off top-spot but this should be a close encounter and Cardiff certainly have a decent chance.